The gains came as gold for August delivery surged $3.40 to $323.70 an ounce on the New York Commodities Exchange. Comex gold inventories stood unchanged at 1.59 million ounces.

July silver was up 2.8 cents to $4.87 an ounce. Comex silver stocks were down 1.1 million ounces to 107.65 million by late Wednesday. See full story.

In the currency markets, the dollar fell to a two-year low against the euro, which was trading at 96 cents. That put the currency in breach of a key technical level, analysts said. Weighing on the greenback was April's $35.9 billion trade deficit. See full story.

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